Meaning I was being escapist at the shoe store, but 35 minutes later I had to face those things that didn't resolve themselves while I was shopping. I don't like shopping, very much, so it wasn't even that great an escape! More of a necessity.
Donna, I bought three new pairs of shoes yesterday. One pair of nude pumps, one pair of leopard print pumps, and a pair of black flats for when the others begin to hurt my feet on the job sites.
I am dying to buy a new pair of black strappy sandals, as the current pair that I wear the most to work has a big split in the sole. Unfortunately I have yet to find anything that I like.
Speaking of job sites and shoes, I'll never forget the one project I worked on in which the GC just shook his head and chuckled everytime I showed up to the consrtuction site in a skirt/dress and strappy sandals. He gave one of my vendors hell for showing up without steel toe shoes; but me, all I had to do was make sure I had my hard hat on. Naked toes were okay.
What the Heck is an Oxford comma?
And now that I'm on the other side of the plotter, (not working in the architect office, but on the 'make it happen' side) sloppy architects are annoying. Don't draw a door at 6'-6" and then say, "oh, it should be 8'". Pay attention to what you're doing, sheesh!
I'm a big fan of the Oxford comma. In fact, while looking over some spec sheets yesterday I added it, so that I could understand what, in fact, I was reading.
Damn Liberal Arts degree.
Sarah - a friend of mine who does construction estimating was complaining about the same thing the other day. Keyed notes no where to be found on the sheet, wall types that don't call out how the wall is to be finished (i.e. just the stud was noted) and notes that were too generalized (what kind of slat wall).
I once had to do a relfected ceiling plan from a set of As-Built drawings that were an absolute mess. It took me almost a whole week to figure everything out because there was so much information missing.
My philosophy is if I can't figured out how it's supposed to built or I have a hard time finding stuff on a sheet, it's for damn sure the contractors are going to have difficulty understanding it.
Yep, that was pretty much the case. His window schedule said one thing, his elevations another, and his plans were different yet! I'm not sure if what I sent was what he wanted. Since it was just a budget meeting, I quoted the biggest option out of his three.
Donna, I was thinking that was what you meant.
Donna, that's my favorite illustration of the oxford comma ever.
I HATE it when a company that's just laid off my friends advertises jobs on archinect. HATE. This isn't the first time this has happened either, this firm is particularly irresponsible about hiring, they never plan realistically for the future. So ridiculous.
I just had a client stiff me $250, after I explicitly asked them to call me if they felt like that $250 wasn't justified. Instead they just wrote a smaller check. Passive aggressive bullshit over less money than I spend in their establishment every few months.
Then I have another client who says "Be sure you bill us properly for whatever time you spend chasing down these ideas we come up with - don't short yourself!".
time to order some flowers for the client...and sign it "Your Mistress".... oh ya pay cash so they can't be traced back to you. If they are married then you will really get them where it hurts. Be sure to have them delivered to there home when the spouce will be there.
just add a zip code on the card which includes 02500. They will get the message.
donna, it's looking like I may have to take a client to small claims court over $1200. I know that's small beans in the arch world, but that was my entire contract with them. They can't be reached for contact at all, which is what makes me feel like that's the only way to go. If I could talk to them and see what the holdup is, work out a payment plan, then I'd be willing to wait for payment if I could have some confidence it would arrive at a certain point. But by avoiding my calls and emails, they box me into a corner where serving them papers is the only way to get through. How counterproductive is that?
Exactly, rationalist. Lack of communication is the biggest problem. If you leave them ten messages and email them ten times and they don't respond, then what else can you do but get a legal entity involved? At the very least leave them one last message that says "Respond to this or the next time you hear from me it will be through my lawyer."
Ugh! There is NOTHING I can't stand more than passive aggressiveness, and it is 100x worse coming from a client - especially one that you yourself do business with in another context!
Also, in what universe is $250 not a reasonable bill for an architect's time? I'm assuming that was probably only 2 hours of your time, approximately, correct? How could they possibly bitch about you spending 2 hours of your time on their request?! Ugh. You're right, I do need to get ready for this.
On a happier note, today is my first official day of being an un/self-employed architect. Hooray! I can't tell you how my brain has been blossoming back into creativity again in the last week or two. I hadn't realized how deeply I'd shut off all of that side of me in order to work my boring pay-the-bills job without going crazy.
will and donna, I think my next step is to have a bill delivered via certified mail (an individual has to sign for it, so I can prove that they have received my notices). Then after that if they don't respond, file the paperwork and have them served. A lot of resources for freelancers say that most clients will pay up (especially for a small bill) at this time because of the issue that will mentioned, defending costs more than paying. For me, at small claims court, I wouldn't have a lawyer. It would be a matter or showing up saying hey, here's our contract, here's the delivered product, here's the 5 bills I sent, here's a log of phone calls and text messages to my contact at their offices, time to pay.
I just finished serving on a Town Committee helping guide some regulations for a local blight law. Seems like some people can come up with a million reasons why they should be allowed to let there property look like crap. Anyhow long and short of it is Certified Mail sucks! I kinda knew it because I have a non paying client going on about four years. He would basicly not pick up the certified mail and it would be returned to us. Apparently the same thing happens with Town Officials. So I learned what they do is have the paper work delivered by the local sherriff. It cost about $50.00. So you know they recieve it and have to sign for it. You get the added bennefit of having it tied back to law enforcement and not the postal service.
Do any of the regulars at this site work on a MAC Platform with Autocad 13 light? I'm thinking about flipping over to the mac platform, just cause the machines look so sexy. Mrs S does all her graphic work on a Mac and we just upgraded her yesterday and the problem is the machine and her are across the room from me and well it is just HOT! Only thing is I would not like to jump into one of Autocads night mares. So I'm really trying to find out is it a direction I want to pursue.
snook, I'm using free Draftsight now, which is an Autocad clone, and it runs a lot like Acad 2002, which is pretty close to R13. I fear for you that R13 is so old that it won't be able to work even if you install Windows via Parallels on your computer.
I'm actually looking for the latest information on Autocad, cause if I'm jumping into the Pond I will do it in a Big Way!.....Monster Splash. Mrs loves her new friend. I had some PC problems this past week so I'm thinking it is time to upgrade and do some self education so it is going to be on a ripping new microsoft platform or a Mac platform. I have 2010 lt still in the box, 2007lt which I use to communicate with others and 2000 which is my work horse. It is customized by a couple of autocad tekies, so it is a hell of alot more friendly than hitting excape everytime you want to do something else. Ya there is something about hitting escape which bothers me. I think of George Carlin everytime I do it when working in 2007.
And again thanks for your thoughts, hopefully someone can come thru for me.
acad on mac is really really horrible. or at least it has been this past year. perhaps the new version will work better. i would recommend boot camp. then its all cool, though my partner says its a bit slower than on a real pc.
just had full eclipse in tokyo, with the moon covering sun perfectly. last time i saw that was in grade school. couldn't get any of the special glasses though so had to make do with pinhole camera. kinda cool. can't wait for the next time, 300 years from now.
i only used it for a couple weeks in january for a competition, but i didn't have any problems with the current version of autocad for mac, but i also wasn't trying to do anything particularly taxing...
you know what sucks? here's what sucks; I've lived here for six years and have yet to make any friends - in architecture [not including barry, or vince] - that have any remote interest in starting a small design firm. not to mention, all my good friends and family are back on the east coast. what the hell am i still doing here?
phil, that is still happening, although delayed a couple of months - trying to get house refinanced and rented/sold. barry, the LA thing is always dangling there like that carrot, and i have at least one friend there, besides Brad...
b3tadine .....you letting the cat out of the bag....Donna...just might want to make the move to La with you if she knew you were on the up and up with, "Brad"
I learned today that nominal measurements should not be used for doors. Although I still don't fully understand, apparently everyone one the other side of the building fence hates to hear "make it work" and would prefer that frames, or rough openings be included in the door schedule measurements.
I'm still struggling with it.
i can't imagine how hard construction must be in america with all the fences in the way. it's really like that? We tend to be more communal about it here.
@logout, what are you thinking needs some breaking? sounds interesting.
Will, I was just using the term fence to delineate between the two sides of the construction industry. I had no idea it'd get all crazy. And we do communicate with builder and architect, just the same, there is a bit of eye-roll from the builders whenever the architect is mentioned.
well go to it then, log out. unless by "breaking" you mean by being a troll or something so no one will want to check in? cuz that wouldn't be so chill. but if you want to make it better do step in. i don't think anyone here will object. the whole deal with thread central is that anything is welcome.
@ sarah, sorry i was just playing. but i really don't think there are two sides like that. To be honest builders are no more knowledgeable than architects as far as I can tell and we are working out how to get things built just as much as they are, down to the details and the joints and all the rest. That's in the job description of architect in my mind. If it wasn't what would anyone need an architect for? I know there is that thing with the loving of the fancy graphics and all, but...
I think a lot of what is astonishing me is that I was only 2 years out of school when I got laid off. At my old firm, I did basic intern stuff - draw CDs, copy/paste details, that sort of thing. I didn't get to go to job sites, or meetings with builders. That, and I was told to work in 1/4" tolerances. Now that I'm doing windows and doors, we're custom making these things to the 32nd of an inch. I was told before that gaps were why we had shims and trim, but now I'm finding buildings without trim, and doors less than 3/4" from the ceiling. It's all so blindingly different from the world I was in before.
What tolerances do you guys use?
Sarah, in Architecture you'll find more detailed tolerance info in the specs. Think gages for metals, even thicknesses of paint coatings. There is no need to cram all that info in the drawings. If your company can do 1/32" on something, but the industry standard is 1/16" then we are more likely to call out the later in hopes of better competition, unless the designer absolutely must have your product (and client agrees on no substitutions).
Last few days Archinect has been overrun with parametric people (assuming it's more than one person posting). Very cult-like attitudes. Weird. The overall feeling is that it/they know very tittle about construction, if anything at all.
Thread Central
why not return the shoes if the anchor bolts are in the wrong place?
Donna following toasterovern's (what i assume is tongue in cheek reply) anchor bolts for the project or shoes...
Meaning I was being escapist at the shoe store, but 35 minutes later I had to face those things that didn't resolve themselves while I was shopping. I don't like shopping, very much, so it wasn't even that great an escape! More of a necessity.
Donna, I bought three new pairs of shoes yesterday. One pair of nude pumps, one pair of leopard print pumps, and a pair of black flats for when the others begin to hurt my feet on the job sites.
Bump.
I don't like seeing TC move to the second page.
I am dying to buy a new pair of black strappy sandals, as the current pair that I wear the most to work has a big split in the sole. Unfortunately I have yet to find anything that I like.
Speaking of job sites and shoes, I'll never forget the one project I worked on in which the GC just shook his head and chuckled everytime I showed up to the consrtuction site in a skirt/dress and strappy sandals. He gave one of my vendors hell for showing up without steel toe shoes; but me, all I had to do was make sure I had my hard hat on. Naked toes were okay.
Congrats manta on the new business venture.
Congrats rationalist on the new job.
As in, "About forking time I get my Pritzker"?
Sorry for the banishing the question mark outside the quote, Phillip, but that's just how it feels right to me!
but it is wrong... so, so, wrong!
Donna go with Wrong cause it is so Right....or Wright....
But it's not! Steven Holl isn't asking a question, he's stating that he wants his forking Pritzker! I'm the one asking the question!!
;-) We agree on the Oxford comma, so bipartisanship is indeed possible.
I always opt for the punctuation condition which best communicates what I'm intending to say - MLA-approved or not. I'm with Donna.
What the Heck is an Oxford comma? And now that I'm on the other side of the plotter, (not working in the architect office, but on the 'make it happen' side) sloppy architects are annoying. Don't draw a door at 6'-6" and then say, "oh, it should be 8'". Pay attention to what you're doing, sheesh!
glad you are enjoying your job sarah. you already picked up the attitude that all architects are morons too!
i have no idea what oxford commas are either but it sounds like something i might learn at a liberal college so i refuse to find out.
Hopefully this cartoon explaining the Oxford comma won't come up as porn.
I'm a big fan of the Oxford comma. In fact, while looking over some spec sheets yesterday I added it, so that I could understand what, in fact, I was reading.
Damn Liberal Arts degree.
Sarah - a friend of mine who does construction estimating was complaining about the same thing the other day. Keyed notes no where to be found on the sheet, wall types that don't call out how the wall is to be finished (i.e. just the stud was noted) and notes that were too generalized (what kind of slat wall).
I once had to do a relfected ceiling plan from a set of As-Built drawings that were an absolute mess. It took me almost a whole week to figure everything out because there was so much information missing.
My philosophy is if I can't figured out how it's supposed to built or I have a hard time finding stuff on a sheet, it's for damn sure the contractors are going to have difficulty understanding it.
Yep, that was pretty much the case. His window schedule said one thing, his elevations another, and his plans were different yet! I'm not sure if what I sent was what he wanted. Since it was just a budget meeting, I quoted the biggest option out of his three. Donna, I was thinking that was what you meant.
Donna, that's my favorite illustration of the oxford comma ever.
I HATE it when a company that's just laid off my friends advertises jobs on archinect. HATE. This isn't the first time this has happened either, this firm is particularly irresponsible about hiring, they never plan realistically for the future. So ridiculous.
I just had a client stiff me $250, after I explicitly asked them to call me if they felt like that $250 wasn't justified. Instead they just wrote a smaller check. Passive aggressive bullshit over less money than I spend in their establishment every few months.
Then I have another client who says "Be sure you bill us properly for whatever time you spend chasing down these ideas we come up with - don't short yourself!".
manta: be ready for this!
time to order some flowers for the client...and sign it "Your Mistress".... oh ya pay cash so they can't be traced back to you. If they are married then you will really get them where it hurts. Be sure to have them delivered to there home when the spouce will be there.
just add a zip code on the card which includes 02500. They will get the message.
donna, it's looking like I may have to take a client to small claims court over $1200. I know that's small beans in the arch world, but that was my entire contract with them. They can't be reached for contact at all, which is what makes me feel like that's the only way to go. If I could talk to them and see what the holdup is, work out a payment plan, then I'd be willing to wait for payment if I could have some confidence it would arrive at a certain point. But by avoiding my calls and emails, they box me into a corner where serving them papers is the only way to get through. How counterproductive is that?
Exactly, rationalist. Lack of communication is the biggest problem. If you leave them ten messages and email them ten times and they don't respond, then what else can you do but get a legal entity involved? At the very least leave them one last message that says "Respond to this or the next time you hear from me it will be through my lawyer."
hm that's tough. seems like when we face that kind of issue, our lawyers bill will be much higher than the money we want to retrieve.
oxford comma, got it. knew it was something kinky.
Ugh! There is NOTHING I can't stand more than passive aggressiveness, and it is 100x worse coming from a client - especially one that you yourself do business with in another context!
Also, in what universe is $250 not a reasonable bill for an architect's time? I'm assuming that was probably only 2 hours of your time, approximately, correct? How could they possibly bitch about you spending 2 hours of your time on their request?! Ugh. You're right, I do need to get ready for this.
On a happier note, today is my first official day of being an un/self-employed architect. Hooray! I can't tell you how my brain has been blossoming back into creativity again in the last week or two. I hadn't realized how deeply I'd shut off all of that side of me in order to work my boring pay-the-bills job without going crazy.
will and donna, I think my next step is to have a bill delivered via certified mail (an individual has to sign for it, so I can prove that they have received my notices). Then after that if they don't respond, file the paperwork and have them served. A lot of resources for freelancers say that most clients will pay up (especially for a small bill) at this time because of the issue that will mentioned, defending costs more than paying. For me, at small claims court, I wouldn't have a lawyer. It would be a matter or showing up saying hey, here's our contract, here's the delivered product, here's the 5 bills I sent, here's a log of phone calls and text messages to my contact at their offices, time to pay.
Rationalist,
I just finished serving on a Town Committee helping guide some regulations for a local blight law. Seems like some people can come up with a million reasons why they should be allowed to let there property look like crap. Anyhow long and short of it is Certified Mail sucks! I kinda knew it because I have a non paying client going on about four years. He would basicly not pick up the certified mail and it would be returned to us. Apparently the same thing happens with Town Officials. So I learned what they do is have the paper work delivered by the local sherriff. It cost about $50.00. So you know they recieve it and have to sign for it. You get the added bennefit of having it tied back to law enforcement and not the postal service.
Lots of luck!
Do any of the regulars at this site work on a MAC Platform with Autocad 13 light? I'm thinking about flipping over to the mac platform, just cause the machines look so sexy. Mrs S does all her graphic work on a Mac and we just upgraded her yesterday and the problem is the machine and her are across the room from me and well it is just HOT! Only thing is I would not like to jump into one of Autocads night mares. So I'm really trying to find out is it a direction I want to pursue.
snook, I'm using free Draftsight now, which is an Autocad clone, and it runs a lot like Acad 2002, which is pretty close to R13. I fear for you that R13 is so old that it won't be able to work even if you install Windows via Parallels on your computer.
Donna,
I'm actually looking for the latest information on Autocad, cause if I'm jumping into the Pond I will do it in a Big Way!.....Monster Splash. Mrs loves her new friend. I had some PC problems this past week so I'm thinking it is time to upgrade and do some self education so it is going to be on a ripping new microsoft platform or a Mac platform. I have 2010 lt still in the box, 2007lt which I use to communicate with others and 2000 which is my work horse. It is customized by a couple of autocad tekies, so it is a hell of alot more friendly than hitting excape everytime you want to do something else. Ya there is something about hitting escape which bothers me. I think of George Carlin everytime I do it when working in 2007.
And again thanks for your thoughts, hopefully someone can come thru for me.
Donna...that is 2013...lol...not R13.
acad on mac is really really horrible. or at least it has been this past year. perhaps the new version will work better. i would recommend boot camp. then its all cool, though my partner says its a bit slower than on a real pc.
just had full eclipse in tokyo, with the moon covering sun perfectly. last time i saw that was in grade school. couldn't get any of the special glasses though so had to make do with pinhole camera. kinda cool. can't wait for the next time, 300 years from now.
i only used it for a couple weeks in january for a competition, but i didn't have any problems with the current version of autocad for mac, but i also wasn't trying to do anything particularly taxing...
you know what sucks? here's what sucks; I've lived here for six years and have yet to make any friends - in architecture [not including barry, or vince] - that have any remote interest in starting a small design firm. not to mention, all my good friends and family are back on the east coast. what the hell am i still doing here?
beta - come to LA, (almost) everybody is a transplant unlike the midwest. okay, maybe Jersey is an easier nut to crack. good luck!
move to philly! besides, i thought that you were supposed to be travelling the world and teaching english somewhere in asia... what happened to that?
phil, that is still happening, although delayed a couple of months - trying to get house refinanced and rented/sold. barry, the LA thing is always dangling there like that carrot, and i have at least one friend there, besides Brad...
b3tadine .....you letting the cat out of the bag....Donna...just might want to make the move to La with you if she knew you were on the up and up with, "Brad"
I'm waiting for Brad to come to me. Though beta sweetens the deal considerably.
I learned today that nominal measurements should not be used for doors. Although I still don't fully understand, apparently everyone one the other side of the building fence hates to hear "make it work" and would prefer that frames, or rough openings be included in the door schedule measurements. I'm still struggling with it.
what is this fence you keep speaking of sarah?
I don't know brad, but I do know ------- -----, ------ ----------, -------- -------, and ------- ------ [names redacted] from my days in hollywood.
ya'll had better stop being so OLD and get on board with emergent parametrics for your next kitchen master bath renovations.
Will, the fence is that line between architect/designer/dreamer and those that execute it.
I think there is a fence between the world and the old people that congregate in thread central.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it"
is the slogan of kitchen renovators, the complacent or the scared. It's an excuse for inaction.
"stereotye and generalize" is the slogan of the lazy.
factions now, in addition to the fences? oh my.
i can't imagine how hard construction must be in america with all the fences in the way. it's really like that? We tend to be more communal about it here.
@logout, what are you thinking needs some breaking? sounds interesting.
Will, I was just using the term fence to delineate between the two sides of the construction industry. I had no idea it'd get all crazy. And we do communicate with builder and architect, just the same, there is a bit of eye-roll from the builders whenever the architect is mentioned.
ok lars, but vado fits the stereotype quite nicely, and there is no denying many in this thread sympathize with him.
will, I think thread central needs some breaking.
well go to it then, log out. unless by "breaking" you mean by being a troll or something so no one will want to check in? cuz that wouldn't be so chill. but if you want to make it better do step in. i don't think anyone here will object. the whole deal with thread central is that anything is welcome.
@ sarah, sorry i was just playing. but i really don't think there are two sides like that. To be honest builders are no more knowledgeable than architects as far as I can tell and we are working out how to get things built just as much as they are, down to the details and the joints and all the rest. That's in the job description of architect in my mind. If it wasn't what would anyone need an architect for? I know there is that thing with the loving of the fancy graphics and all, but...
I think a lot of what is astonishing me is that I was only 2 years out of school when I got laid off. At my old firm, I did basic intern stuff - draw CDs, copy/paste details, that sort of thing. I didn't get to go to job sites, or meetings with builders. That, and I was told to work in 1/4" tolerances. Now that I'm doing windows and doors, we're custom making these things to the 32nd of an inch. I was told before that gaps were why we had shims and trim, but now I'm finding buildings without trim, and doors less than 3/4" from the ceiling. It's all so blindingly different from the world I was in before. What tolerances do you guys use?
Sarah, in Architecture you'll find more detailed tolerance info in the specs. Think gages for metals, even thicknesses of paint coatings. There is no need to cram all that info in the drawings. If your company can do 1/32" on something, but the industry standard is 1/16" then we are more likely to call out the later in hopes of better competition, unless the designer absolutely must have your product (and client agrees on no substitutions).
Last few days Archinect has been overrun with parametric people (assuming it's more than one person posting). Very cult-like attitudes. Weird. The overall feeling is that it/they know very tittle about construction, if anything at all.
"the whole deal with thread central is that anything is welcome."
I doubt that, even Rusty still doesn't quite fit in.
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